• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.13-16
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• 2011

The $CH_3OH$ $4_2-5_1$ E transition was observed toward the Sgr B2 region, including the Principal Cloud and its surroundings. This methanol transition shows an extended emission along the 2'N cloud, which is believed to be colliding with the Principal Cloud and may trigger the massive star formation in this cloud. This extended methanol emission may also suggest that the 2'N cloud is under shocks. We derive total methanol column density $N(CH_3OH)\;=\;2.9{\pm}0.3{\times}10^{14}\;cm^{-2}$ toward the peak position of the extended emission. The fractional abundance of methanol is about 10.9, relative to the estimated total $H_2$ abundance, which is similar to the methanol abundances in quiet gas phase.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.257-260
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• 2005

We have mapped the W 3 giant molecular cloud in the $C^o\;^3P_1-^3 P_o$ ([CI]) line with the Mount Fuji Submillimeter-wave Telescope. The [CI] emission is extended over the molecular cloud, having peaks at three star forming clouds; W 3(Main), W 3(OH), and AFGL 333. The [CI] emission is found to be strong in the AFGL 333 cloud. We have also observed the $C^{18}O,\;CCS,\;N_2H^+$, and $H^{13}CO^+$ lines by using the Nobeyama Radio Observatory 45 m telescope. In the AFGL 333 cloud, we find two massive cores, which are highly gravitationally bound and have no sign of active star formation. The high [$C^o$]/[CO] and [CCS]/[$N_2H^+$] abundance ratios suggest that the AFGL 333 cloud is younger than the W 3(Main) and W 3(OH) clouds.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.279-282
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• 2005

We report the millimeter-wave radio observations of molecular cloud cores in Taurus. The observed line is the $N_2H^+$ emission at 93 GHz, which is known to be less affected by molecular depletion. We have compared starless (IRAS-less) cores with star-forming cores. We found that there is no large difference between starless and star-forming cores, in core radius, linewidth, core mass, and radial intensity profile. Our result is in contrast with the result obtained by using a popular molecular line, in which starless cores are larger and less condensed. We suggest that different results mainly come from whether the employed molecular line is affected by depletion or not. We made a virial analysis, and found that both starless and star-forming cores are not far from the critical equilibrium state, in Taurus. Together with the fact that Taurus cores are almost thermally supported, we conclude that starless Taurus cores evolve to star formation without dissipating turbulence. The critical equilibrium state in the virial analysis corresponds to the critical Bonnor-Ebert sphere in the Bonnor-Ebert analysis (Nakano 1998). It is suggested that the initial condition of the molecular cloud cores/globules for star formation is close to the critical equilibrium state/critical Bonnor-Ebert sphere, in the low-mass star forming region.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.61-65
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• 2007

The 2-1 and 5-4 transitions of SiO have been observed toward the Sgr B2 region, including the Principal Cloud(the GMC containing Sgr B2(M)) and its surroundings. The morphology and velocity structure of the SiO emission show a close resemblance with the HNCO Ring feature, identified by Minh & Irvine(2006), of about 10 pc in diameter, which may be expanding and colliding with the Principal Cloud. Three SiO clumps have been found around the Ring, with total column densities $N_{SiO}{\sim}1{\times}10^{14}cm^{-2}$ at the peak positions of these clumps. The fractional SiO abundance relative to $H_2$ has been estimated to be ${\sim}(0.5-1){\times}10^{-9}$, which is about two orders of magnitude larger than the quiet dense cloud values. Our SiO observational result supports the existence of an expanding ring, which may be triggering active star formations in the Principal Cloud.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.157-166
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• 2001

The molecular cloud associated with the H II region S301 has been mapped in the J = 1-0 transitions of $^{12}CO$ and $^{13}CO$ using the 13.7 m radio telescope of Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory. The cloud is elongated along the north-south direction with two strong emission components facing the H II region. Its total mass is $8.7 {\times} 10^3 M{\bigodot}$. We find a velocity gradient of the molecular gas near the interface with the optical H II region, which may be a signature of interaction between the molecular cloud and the H II region. Spectra of CO, CS, and HCO+ exhibit line splitting even in the densest part of the cloud and suggests the clumpy structure. The radio continuum maps show that the ionzed gas is distributed with some asymmetry and the eastern part of the H II region is obscured by the molecular cloud. We propose that the S301 H II region is at the late stage of the champagne phase, but the second generation of stars has not yet been formed in the postshock layer.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2000

We have investigated the properties of the high-latitude cloud MBM 7 using the 3 mm transitions of CO, CS, HCN, $HCO^+,\;C_3H_2,\;N_2H^+$, and SiO. The molecular component of MBM 7 shows a very clumpy structure with a size of $\le$0.5 pc, elongated along the northwest-southeast direction, perpendicularly to an extended HI component, which could be resulted from shock formation. We have derived physical properties for two molecular cores in the central region. Their sizes are 0.1-0.3 pc and masses 1-2 M$\bigodot$ having an average volume density $\~2{\times}10^3 cm^{-3}$ at the peak of molecular emission. We have tested the stability of the cores using the full version of the virial theorem and found that the cores are stabilized with ambient medium, and they are expected not to be dissipated easily without external perturbations. Therefore MBM 7 does not seem to be a site for new star formation. The molecular abundances in the densest core appear to be much less (by about one order of magnitude) than the 'general' dark cloud values. If the depletions of heavy elements are not significant in the HLCs compared with those in typical dark clouds, our results may suggest different chemical evolutionary stages or different chemical environments of the HLCs compared with dense dark clouds in the Galactic plane.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.97-103
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• 2002

We have mapped 1 $deg^2$ region toward a high latitude cloud MBM 40 in the J = 1 - 0 transition of $^{12}CO$ and $^{13}CO$, using the 3 mm SIS receiver on the 14 m telescope at Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory. We used a high resolution autocorrelator to resolve extremely narrow CO linewidths of the molecular gas. Though the linewidth of the molecular gas is very narrow (FWHP < 1 km $s^{-1}$ ), it is found that there is an evident velocity difference between the middle upper part and the lower part of the cloud. Their spectra for both of $^{12}CO$ and $^{13}CO$ show blue wings, and the position-velocity map shows clear velocity difference of 0.4 km $s^{-1}$ between two parts. The mean velocity of the cloud is 3.1 km $s^{-1}$. It is also found that the linewidths at the blueshifted region are broader than those of the rest of the cloud. We confirmed that the visual extinction is less than 3 magnitude, and the molecular gas is translucent. We discussed three mass estimates, and took a mass of 17 solar masses from CO integrated intensity using a conversion factor $2.3 {\times} 10^{20} cm^{-2} (K\;km s^{-1})^{-1}$. Spatial coincidence and close morphological similarity is found between the CO emission and dust far-infrared (FIR) emission. The ratio between the 100 f.Lm intensity and CO integrated intensity of MBM 40 is 0.7 (MJy/sr)/(K km $s^{-1}$), which is larger than those of dark clouds, but much smaller than those of GMCs. The low ratio found for MBM 40 probably results from the absence of internal heating sources, or significant nearby external heating sources.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.49 no.6
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• pp.255-259
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• 2016

We estimate the fractal dimension of the ${\rho}$ Ophiuchus Molecular Cloud Complex, associated with star forming regions. We selected a cube (${\upsilon}$, l, b) database, obtained with J = 1-0 transition lines of $^{12}CO$ and $^{13}CO$ at a resolution of 22" using a multibeam receiver system on the 14-m telescope of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. Using a code developed within IRAF, we identified slice-clouds with two threshold temperatures to estimate the fractal dimension. With threshold temperatures of 2.25 K ($3{\sigma}$) and 3.75 K ($5{\sigma}$), the fractal dimension of the target cloud is estimated to be D = 1.52-1.54, where $P{\propto}A^{D/2}$, which is larger than previous results. We suggest that the sampling rate (spatial resolution) of observed data must be an important parameter when estimating the fractal dimension, and that narrower or wider dispersion around an arbitrary fit line and the intercepts at NP = 100 should be checked whether they relate to firms noise level or characteristic structure of the target cloud. This issue could be investigated by analysing several high resolution databases with different quality (low or moderate sensitivity).

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.117-125
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• 1998

We have observed the 10-9 transitions of $HC_3N$ and its $^{13}C$ substitutes ($H^{13}CCCN,\;HC^{13}CCN$, and $HCC^{13}CN$), and the vibration ally excited 12-11 ($v_r=1$) $HC_3N$ transition toward the Sgr B2 molecular cloud. The observed $HC_3N$ emission shows an elongated shape around the Principal Cloud ($\~$4.5 pc in R.A. $\times$ 7.4 pc in Decl.). The optically thin $H^{13}CCCN$ line peaks around the (N) core and we derive the total column density $N(H^{13}CCCN) = 4 {\times}10^{13} cm^{-2}$ at this position. Toward the 2' N cloud which shows the peculiar chemistry, the $HC_3N$ lines show enhancements compared to the extended envelope. The shocks of the 2' N may have resulted in the enhancement of $HC_3N$. The hot component of $HC_3N$ is strongly concentrated around the (N) core and its HPW is $\~$0.9 pc in diameter. We derive the lower limit of the abundance ratio $N(HC_3N)/N(H^{13}CCCN)$ to be larger than 40 in most regions except the (M) and (N) cores. The fractionation processes of $^{13}C $at this region may not be as effective as previously reported.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.spc1
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• pp.183-186
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• 1996

We report the results of H I 21-cm and molecular line studies of the shocked interstellar gas in the W51 complex. We present convincing evidences suggesting that the shocked gas has been produced by the interaction of the W51C supernova remant (SNR) with a large molecular cloud, Our results show that W51C is the second SNR with direct evidences for the shocked cloud material.